“Two-thirds of people prescribed a drug usually used to treat opioid addiction get more of the addictive drugs after treatment, researchers reported Thursday.
And more than 40 percent get an opioid at the same time as they are taking buprenorphine, potentially counteracting addiction treatment efforts, the team reported.
The findings suggest that doctors are not checking patient prescription records and are prescribing painkillers to the very people who should not be getting them, the researchers report in the journal Addiction.
“The statistics are startling but are consistent with studies of patients treated with methadone showing that many patients resume opioid use after treatment,” said Dr. Caleb Alexander of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who oversaw the research.”
Read more at: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/addicts-get-opioids-during-after-addiction-treatment-study-finds-n724731
Source: NBCNews.com – February 23, 2017
See March 3rd followup article from Behavioral Healthcare Executive. The least you need to know about buprenorphine and PDMPs available at: http://www.behavioral.net/blogs/julie-miller/prescription-drug-abuse/least-you-need-know-about-buprenorphine-and-pdmps
